California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson with a model of SpaceShipTwo.
Credit: AFP
MOJAVE: British billionaire Richard Branson has unveiled a commercial rocket plane that will allow tourists a chance to view the Earth and experience weightlessness from suborbital space.
His company, Virgin Galactic, has been selling tickets to fly on the putative spaceliner for US$200,000 each, giving adventurous, well-heeled travellers a chance to experience space for a fraction of the cost of a seat on a NASA space shuttle or Russian rocket capsule.
Branson, who is spending between US$250 million and US$400 million on the space venture, also said he planned to be on the craft's first passenger flight some 18 months from now, accompanied by his family and the U.S. aeronautical designer of the craft, Burt Rutan.
Rocket-propelled
The futuristic-looking craft is composed of two parts: the rocket-propelled SpaceShipTwo and the dual-fuselage launch airplane, WhiteKnightTwo, the prototype of which has been dubbed V.S.S. Eve (for 'Virgin Mother Ship') in a tribute to Branson's mother.
The craft, emblazoned with the image of a young woman that represents Branson's mother Eve diving through space, resembles two jet aircraft joined together at their wing tips.
The WhiteKnight mother craft will transport the two-pilot, six-passenger SpaceShipTwo some 17 km above the ground, from which SpaceShipTwo will be detahced, fire its hybrid rocket motor and break away at three times the speed of sound, propelling beyond the atmosphere.
SpaceShipTwo "is attached to the mothership in the middle, and when the mothership gets up to 60,000 feet, the spaceship will drop away," Branson said. "They will ignite the rocket and it will go from zero to 2,500 miles per hour in 10 seconds."
Zero gravity
Once it has reached suborbital space, SpaceShipTwo passengers will be able to view the Earth from portholes next to their seats, or unbuckle their seatbelts and float in zero gravity.
"This is a very big space ship, so you have got a lot of room to float around, lots of windows to look out," Branson said.
"There will be two astronauts at the front, but the six passengers will be astronauts by the time they are finished."
The ship's unusual design allows it to return to Earth like a shuttlecock, avoiding the need for a heavy heatshield or facing the intense heat and pressure build-up experienced by the space shuttle.
Branson said he had long dreamed of being able to offer space travel.
"I think the idea came when I was sitting watching the Moon landing many years ago. I know there are literally thousands of people who would love to go to space, to be able to look out the window, to marvel at the beautiful Earth, and through Virgin Galactic we will make it possible."
Private space flight
Getting closer, nice, very nice!